Quote provided by
Sister Paulette Ducharme, Chaplain

Spa Gift Cards - a great gift idea

New Campus Development
By Stan Shelton

Patient Focus Groups
During recent patient focus groups, 13 former patients and community members reviewed the new campus development plans, described their previous experiences with us and gave their input about what they’d like to be different on the new campus.  They were also given a tour of the adult and NICU patient room mock-ups. Each participant was thrilled that we are planning a new facility and was proud to be a part of the process. 

What they shared with us reinforced the need to develop a new campus. Not surprisingly, their number one concern was convenient parking.  What was surprising is that they said convenient parking is more important than a great view from their room.  We also had a lively discussion about whether each patient room should have a bathtub or a shower – more on that dilemma in the near future.  We are working on incorporating their feedback into the planning process.

Pecue Land Purchase
We have recently purchased about two acres of land on Pecue Lane (it backs up to Briarwood). The land will provide a service road access from Pecue Lane to the new campus and it may also be the location of our mechanical plant at the new hospital. The Baton Rouge Business Report and The Advocate both ran stories related to this land purchase. We want to gain the best value for our additional property needs and are continuing to negotiate for specific pieces of property surrounding our future campus.  Once land purchase agreements are finalized we will update you.

Partnership Opportunities
On November 6, a steering committee for physician/hospital partnerships on the new campus held its first meeting with representatives from Surgical Synergies Inc. (SSI), our consultants for the joint venture process.  A path was laid out for investigating the feasibility of a number of different ventures.  We expect to receive an initial report of the feasibility of each venture in January.  Between now and then, the team from SSI is contacting physician groups to collect information necessary to complete their analysis. 

Medical Office Buildings
During the week of October 31, representatives from Lillibridge met with many of the physician groups that have expressed interest in the Medical Office Buildings on the new campus.  During those meetings, Lillibridge introduced a non-binding letter of intent that will be used to help determine both the size and the ownership of the buildings.  We expect those letters of intent to be returned by the first of December.

Design Development Phase
During the design development phase, departments have endless meetings with the architects to identify how each and every room in the facility will be equipped, furnished and arranged (thanks to all of you who have participated in those meetings).  Our final design development session is scheduled for the week of December 3rd.  The design development phase of the project will be concluded in February with a new estimate of the project cost.

Timeline
We are also in the process of integrating the various campus schedules i.e. campus development, campus master plan, MD joint venture opportunities, and the medical office building construction.  We had what we’re calling a “schedule summit” on November 20 with all of the design and consultant groups for our project.  We’ve taken the feedback from that meeting and are working toward a finalized schedule in mid-December.  Once that is done, we’ll be able to provide an accurate and comprehensive timeline for the entire project completion.

Value Engineering
As mentioned previously, “value engineering” is the process of reducing the cost of the project by, hopefully, finding more efficient designs and better ideas or eliminating things not actually needed.  I’ve reported about $7 million in value engineering decisions since we started design development.  I’m pleased to report that we’ve found additional savings.  By simply moving the mechanical plant closer to the hospital building, we save over $1 million.  We’ll continue to explore better, faster, cheaper ideas throughout the life of the project.  We’ll keep you posted as those decisions are made.

8-Week Look Ahead
During the next eight-week period, we will:

• Finish the design development phase and receive a new cost estimate

• Finalize exterior design

• Continue working on joint venture opportunities with physicians

• Begin the design of the medical office buildings

• Finalize concepts for the overall master plan

• Begin the zoning process

Building Operations Helpdesk
By Terry Dyer

The Building Operations Department has implemented a new system for creating work orders. The system will be used to enter work requests for the maintenance and biomedical departments. It will also be used for work requests for offsite areas.

Home | Next